Los Angeles: A judge has given temporary guardianship of late singer Michael Jackson's three children to his nephew TJ amid a dispute over the supposed disappearance of the family's matriarch.

Katherine Jackson, the late singer's mother, had custody of Paris, Prince Michael and Blanket, but Judge Mitchell Beckloff suspended that arrangement because she had left the family home in Los Angeles.

The family has been embroiled in legal and financial disputes singe the pop star's sudden death in June 2009 from an overdose of Propofol, a powerful anesthetic.

The matriarch's whereabouts are still uncertain, with one member of the family reporting her missing but the singer's brother Jermaine insisting she was well and resting in Arizona.

"I want to reassure everyone that Mother is fine but is resting up in AZ on the orders of a doctor, not us," Jermaine Jackson tweeted.

In a Twitter message, 14-year-old Paris said Sunday: "Yes, my grandmother is missing. I haven't spoken with her in a week I want her home now."

Prince Michael is 15 and Blanket is 10.

Lawyers for TJ Jackson, who is the son of Michael's brother Tito, and Katherine Jackson told the judge they suspected the woman's disappearance was not voluntary.

Randy Jackson, another of the singer's brothers, told ABC's "Good Morning America" today that Katherine was returning to Los Angeles but was in bad health.

Her doctor "wanted her to go somewhere where she couldn't be on the phone, and just cut off from the outside world for a few days," he said.